A General Model for Toxin-Antitoxin Module Dynamics Can Explain Persister Cell Formation in E. coli
Figure 7
Large toxin spikes provide a route to persister cell formation through growth rate suppression.
Panel A and B show the free toxin T (red) and free antitoxin A (green) level in the case of interacting binding sites on the operator, respectively without (A) and with (B) toxic feedback effects. Panel C shows a scatterplot comparing toxin spike amplitude and duration when the system has no toxin feedback (red), transcription modulation only (green) and transcription and cell growth modulation (blue). Panel D shows a probability distribution of the fitness landscape in the three cases, obtained by analyzing the response of 100 cells during 100 days of simulated data. Panel E shows a sketch of how the average growth rate of a population of cells can be decreased through the presence of persister cells (cells with decreased growth rate). Such persister cells are shown in red and their growth is largely arrested. ,
,
and
.